Soeharto named suspect in graft investigation

JAKARTA (JP): Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said on Tuesday that former president Soeharto was fit enough and would be questioned as a suspect in alleged corruption during his 32 years in power.

"We will have to look into the possibility (because) we understand that he is now healthy again," Marzuki told reporters after meeting with the House of Representatives Commission II for legal and home affairs.

Marzuki said, however, that he would first have to study "the immediate possibility of summoning Mr. Soeharto to physically show up at the Attorney General's Office".

Soeharto visited the Attorney General's Office early this year to declare his innocence when pressure mounted on B.J. Habibie's government to investigate alleged corruption by his predecessor.

At the conclusion of the year-long probe carried out during Habibie's 16-month term, then attorney general Ismudjoko announced his office was dropping the investigation due to lack of evidence. Soeharto was never named a suspect then.

Marzuki announced on Monday that he was reopening the investigation into alleged corruption by the former longtime ruler.

He said new evidence had been discovered to warrant the resumption of the investigation into 78-year-old Soeharto.

Marzuki said evidence pointed to "a misuse of power and authority" in issuing government regulations and presidential decrees to amass funds for foundations linked to Soeharto, his family and associates.

Marzuki later said that Soeharto had been named a suspect in the investigation.

"We are reopening the investigation and by definition and as a consequence, Mr. Soeharto is clearly a suspect in the case," Marzuki said, adding that the former president would be charged with abuse of power.

One of Soeharto's lawyers, Juan Felix Tampubolon, was furious with the attorney general, arguing that once an investigation was officially dropped it could not be reopened.

Juan contended that Marzuki's move was politically motivated, and had nothing to do with his desire to uphold the supremacy of the law.

Marzuki, however, defended his move on Tuesday, saying that his decision to reopen the investigation into Soeharto was "based purely on new findings".

"I do not quite agree with it (Juan's comment), but if he means that this decision is widely supported by the public then, yes, that's a fact," Marzuki said.

Earlier in the day, Marzuki told legislators that his office had a strong legal basis to resume the investigation into Soeharto.

"The policy to drop the investigation due to insufficient evidence (in October) was only a temporary decision and that decision did not rule out the possibility of reopening the investigation should new evidence be found in the future," Marzuki said.

Soeharto has been twice hospitalized this year for a stroke and intestinal bleeding.

His lawyers had said Soeharto was in poor health and unable to speak, but he appeared in good health last month when he visited the tomb of his late wife Tien in her former Central Java hometown of Surakarta.

When asked whether Soeharto's children would also be questioned in the renewed investigation, Marzuki said: "We are not ruling out possibilities, if the investigation leads to that, then that would be a consequence of the investigation." (byg)